BIOGRAPHY

Piotr Anderszewski: Sublime and profound musical philosophy

The Polish-Hungarian pianist Piotr Anderszewski, who was born in Warsaw on April 4, 1969, may be admired for the third time in the series. Some twenty years ago Anderszewski won the favour of the public with his interpretation of Beethoven’s Diabelli-variations. Ever since he receives international praise for the way he performs with great transparency, intelligence and musical adroitness.

Piotr Anderszewski

Anderszewski’s impressive career started in an unusual manner during the Leeds Competition in 1990. He disqualified himself in the finals by leaving the podium in the middle of his recital. He did not feel his play was good enough. Later he commented: ‘It felt wrong. The goal of every person I met at that competition was to win. Mine was absolutely not. I just wanted to play as best as I could, and I felt guilty towards all those others who so desperately wanted to win and did not get through.’

Anderszewski made his own choices on his way to the top. He hates conventions, is oblivious to political correctness or to the opinions of others. Anderszweski is very critical towards himself, and constantly asks himself why he plays a particular piece. He has sympathy for musicians who, as they get older, restrict their repertoire ever further, as is e.g. the case with the legendary pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. He has a great fascination with Bach. He has played all nineteen clavier suites, but only wants to perform those in public that he can connect to a bigger story. ‘Some partitas I don’t understand at all. I need a vision from beginning to end, of why it starts one way and ends another. Otherwise, I don’t have the courage to play. If I don’t tell a story while performing, I don’t feel well.’ For that reason he is not keen to do live concerts, as he often is not sure enough of himself. ‘In the recording studio, I can prepare and control everything. It is so much more human.’ Several of the great pianists feel that same ‘pressure’ and ‘uncertainty,’ but his standpoint puts him, in fact, in the company of the late Glenn Gould. ‘Absolutely, one day, I might stop giving concerts, too.’

Fortunately, we are not at this point yet, and we may rejoice that we can once again listen to ‘his’ Diabelli-variations. Trouw commented in November 2009: ‘Piotr Anderszewski (. . .) plays this with absolute technical craftsmanship. All of these brilliant variations were perfect; the adagio’s manifested a great inner tension. The sound of Anderszewski’s play was sturdy, with sharp accents and not overly-polished–as Beethoven demands–but at the same time uniquely differentiated. There were beautiful moments when after an explosion of sound the pianist suddenly made his instrument whisper.

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